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So, now that I’m living only 15 miles from Nichol’s Garden Nursery, I have a chance to pop in. (It’s actually much more inconvenient for me since we move – I used to drive past Nichols twice a month during daylight hours, and it was well positioned for a break from driving. Oh well). Anyway, I’ve been having less than warm feelings about Nichols since about 2007, when Monsanto bought Semenis and I took a strong position against Semenis seeds. I wrote to Nichols and they weren’t very helpful, they were relucant to clarify sources on their various varieties. I had a little better luck with Territorial, perhaps since I stopped in their store in person when the product manager happened to be around and we looked up some varieties in his system.

Anyway, now I learn that Nichols is phasing out the Semenis varieties, that they are no going to be carrying them. The Semenis varieties are on a separate rack, away from the regular seeds. This is good; I feel much better about them and trusting them for something as important as the very source of our food!

And I think it’s wonderful that we have seed companies so close! Oregon is blessed with many wonderful small seed companies as well as larger ones like Nichols and Territorial/Abundant Life. One I’ve found recently is Adaptive Seeds. These folks are pretty close to us (as the crow flies, there’s some hills between). They are big advocates of seed saving and have a wonderful instruction book: Seed Saving ‘zine.

I’ve also discovered that Tom Wagner, the seed breeder who came up with Green Zebra (as well as many other well-known tomato varieties), is around here, Washington state somewhere, breeding tomatoes and potatoes. Tom Wagner’s blog He will sell an assortment of seed potatoes from his breeding lines. It’s tempting, but we are so fussy about potatoes.

And finally short plugs for Peace Seedlings/Peace Seeds (I’m not sure why these are distinct) and for Wild Garden Seed.

I don’t really need more seed this year, though, I already have more than I can possibly use